Tracking NPOTA Award Progress

The ARRL's 2016 National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event encourages Activators to make QSOs with Chasers from locations within one or more National Parks, and Chasers to make QSOs with Activators. QSOs confirmed via LoTW yield points for Activators and Chasers; scores are updated daily on the NPOTA Leader Board.

Setup

Activators and Chasers should both select an unused user-defined item, and set its Caption to NPOTA and its Style to Alphanumeric.

For each location from which they operate, Activators should

Logging QSOs

Activators need only ensure that each QSO is logged with the appropriate my QTH ID; this is easily accomplished by selecting the default QTH ID in the Log Settings panel on the Configuration window's Log tab.

Chasers should populate each QSO's NPOTA item (the user-defined item whose caption is set to NPOTA) with the four-character code for the Park from which their Activator QSO partner is operating. If the Activator is in a location within more than one Park, log the Park codes in the NPOTA item separated by commas, e.g. NS21, TR11

QSOs can be logged from DXKeeper or WinWarbler.

Uploading QSOs to LoTW

To upload QSOs to LotW, an Activator should

  1. filter the Log Page Display to contain only QSOs made from the location from which he or she is operating

  2. in the TQSL panel on the QSL Configuration window's LotW tab, set the Station Location selector to the Station Location defined for the Park or combination of Parks from which he or she is operating

  3. on the Main window's QSL tab,

    1. set the QSL Via panel to LotW

    2. click the Add Requested button

    3. click the Upload to LotW button

To upload QSOs to LotW, a Chaser should use the standard procedure. Note that each QSO's Park code are not included in information sent to LotW. Credit is granted exclusively on the basis of the Park codes submitted by the Activator with whom each QSO is made (via the Station Location he or she employs to upload the QSO).

Syncing with LotW

An Activator's use of the Sync LoTW QSLS function is unchanged from normal operation.

A Chaser also uses the Sync LoTW QSLS function in the usual way, but it's handling of discrepancies between logged park codes and LotW-confirmed park codes is unique:

Generating an NPOTA Progress Report

To generate a Progress Report for a specific operating location or for a set of operating locations, an Activator should filter the Log Page Display by my QTH ID, and then click the NPOTA button in Other Awards panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab.

Chasers can simply click the NPOTA button in Other Awards panel on the Main window's Check Progress tab.

Note that the NPOTA Progress report does not count as confirmed any of the parks specified in an LotW-confirmed QSO for which at least one park is not included in the LotW confirmation, whereas the LotW Leader Board does count as confirmed those parks that are included in the LotW confirmation. For example, supposed you logged a QSO that specified two park codes in its NPOTA item - TR01 and NP51 - because you believed the Activator you worked was operating from a location within both the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and Shenandoah National Park. However, the Activator uploaded your QSO using a Station Location that specified only the Appalachian National Scenic Trail as his operating location. When you invoked Sync LotW QSLs, you were informed of this variance. If you did not remove the code for Shenandoah National Park from the QSO's NPOTA item by allowing the Sync LotW QSLs function to do so, then the NPOTA Progress Report will not consider the Appalachian National Scenic Trail confirmed, but the ARRL's NPOTA Leader Board will consider Appalachian National Scenic Trail confirmed. To correct this,

  1. remove the park code for Shenandoah National Park from the QSO's NPOTA item

  2. save the change

  3. right click the QSO's entry in the Log Page Display, and select Update from LotW

This will insert an N into the the QSO's LotW cfm item, indicating that the parks specified by the QSO -- in this example, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail -- are confirmed.

Using SpotCollector to Pursue Unworked National Parks

Setup

  1. on the Configuration window's General tab, enable the Capture location info from notes option

  2. on the Configuration window's General tab, enable the Accept SQL Filter Updates option

  3. on the Configuration window's Spot Database Display tab, add the NPOTA Field to the Layout panel, and make its column visible in the Spot Database Display

  4. In the Filter panel on SpotCollector's Main window, choose a button in the bottom row that is not in use, and right-click it. In the SpotCollector SQL Filter window that appears,

    1. locate the row whose number of the left is rendered in red font, and change its Caption to NPOTA

    2. the row's SQL expression will be automatically generated by DXKeeper, so there's no need to change it.

  5. click the NPOTA button in the Other Progress Reports panel on the Check Progress tab of DXKeeper's Main window; DXKeeper will

    • generate and display an NPOTA progress report

    • populate the SQL in the filter whose Caption you specified in step 4, and invoke that filter so that only Activators in unworked parks are visible in the Spot Database Display

Pursuit

  1. activating the NPOTA SQL Filter will show only Spot Database Entries whose NPOTA fields specify an unworked park code

  2. double-clicking a Spot Database Entry whose NPOTA field specifies a park code will place that park code in the (user-defined) NPOTA item of DXKeeper's Capture window or in the (user-defined) NPOTA item of WinWarbler's QSO Info panel

  3. after logging one or more QSOs whose (user-defined) NPOTA items each specify a park code, click the NPOTA button in the Other Progress Reports panel on the Check Progress tab of DXKeeper's Main window; DXKeeper will

    • generate and display an NPOTA progress report

    • update the SQL in the NPOTA filter to reflect all worked park codes, and then invoke the updated filter so that only Activators in unworked parks are shown in the Spot Database Display

Limitations

Enabling the Report individual spot information option on the Configuration window's Spot Database tab, and frequently filtering the Spot Database Display with the SQL expression Cumulative like '*NPOTA*' will identify every active station with the word NPOTA in its spot notes. Defining an SQL filter that seeks callsigns from the NPOTA Upcoming Activators page is also recommended.

Using SpotCollector to Pursue Unworked and Worked-but-Unconfirmed National Parks

de Alex W2JU

  1. Filter DXKeeper's Log Page Display to contain only QSOs confirmed via LoTW.

  2. Direct DXKeeper to generate an NPOTA progress report, as described above; DXKeeper will send SpotCollector an SQL filter that shows stations in both unworked and worked-but-unconfirmed parks.

  3. Copy the SQL expression in SpotCollector's NPOTA filter to another filter named cfmNP.

  4. Remove the filtering from DXKeeper's Log Page Display so that all QSOs are present.

  5. Direct DXKeeper to generate an NPOTA progress report, as described above; DXKeeper will send SpotCollector an SQL filter that only shows stations in unworked parks.

You now have two NPOTA filters: one that shows "unworked parks only", and one that shows "both unworked and worked-but-unconfirmed" parks.

Post a question or suggestion on the DXLab Discussion Group

Getting Started with Award Tracking

Getting Started with DXLab

NPOTAAwardTracking (last edited 2018-11-20 02:57:20 by AA6YQ)